Lincoln`s Hat

LE ROY PENNYSAVER & NEWS - SEPTEMBER 27, 2015
by Lynne Belluscio
The Historical Society’s fall
trip to Manchester, Vermont
included a visit to Hildene, the
summer home of Abraham Lincoln’s son, Robert Todd Lincoln.
Hildene was built in 1906, and
is a grand home of the Gilded
Age. Robert was the only child
of Abraham Lincoln to survive
to adulthood. He was a wealthy
lawyer from Chicago, who became the president of the Pullman
Company which manufactured
sleeping cars for the railroad.
After the last Lincoln family
descendant died, the Friends of
Hildene purchased the estate in
1978, and began the long process
of restoration. Hildene includes the
large home, a spectacular formal
garden, a working farm, a restored
1903 Pullman Palace sleeping car,
and an education center.
On the second floor of the
home, is an interesting exhibit
about Abraham Lincoln. On
display is a stovepipe hat worn
by Lincoln. According to most
sources, it is one of only three
existing Lincoln hats. One hat is
exhibited in Washington, D.C. at
the Smithsonian and the third hat
is exhibited in Springfield, Illinois.
The Smithsonian hat was worn
by Lincoln on April 14, 1865, at
Ford’s Theater, the night he was
assassinated. Lincoln acquired
the hat from J.Y. Davis, a Washington hat maker. After the death
of Lincoln’s son, Willie, he added
a black silk mourning band. No
one knows when Lincoln bought
the hat or how often he wore it.
After his assassination, the hat
was preserved by the War Department, with other materials left at
Ford’s Theatre. With permission
from Mary Todd Lincoln, the hat
was given to the Patent Office,
which in 1867, transferred it to
the Smithsonian. Joseph Henry,
the Secretary of the Smithsonian,
ordered his staff not to exhibit the
hat “under any circumstances,
and not to mention the matter to
any one, on account of there being
so much excitement at the time.”
It was placed in a basement
storage room and the public never saw it again until 1893, when
it was exhibited by the Lincoln
Memorial Association. Today,
the Smithsonian’s “hat” is one
Lincoln’s Hat
of the most valued
American icons.
The authenticity
of the Springfield
hat has been challenged. It was made
in Springfield in the
1850s. It belonged
to William Waller,
a farmer in the
area. “According
to a 1958 affidavit
by his daughter-inlaw, Clara Waller,
Lincoln gave
Waller the hat in
Washington, D.C.,
during the Civil War. The hat is
Lincoln’s size and
was made by his
favorite Springfield
hatter. But there is
no evidence William Waller was
in Washington in
1858 and no explanation for why
Lincoln might have given him
the hat.
Adding to the muddle, the
state’s official historian in 2007
decided - based on nothing, really
- that Lincoln gave Waller the hat
after an 1858 Lincoln/Douglas
debate in Jonesboro.” The hat
stayed in the possession of the
farmer’s family until 1958.
Then James Hickey, then
head of the Illinois State Historical Library and overseer of the
state’s Lincoln artifacts, bought it
for himself. The newspaper said
such a move today “would almost
assuredly spark conflict-of-interest questions.”
Lincoln collector Louise Taper bought it from Hickey in
1990 for an undisclosed price.
Then she sold it, in 2007 to the
Abraham Lincoln Presidential
Library Foundation as part of
a $23 million deal for Lincoln
memorabilia. The foundation
then began raising money to repay the city of Springfield, which
issued taxpayer-financed bonds to
buy the collection.” Several years
ago, there was a suggestion that
a DNA sample be tested to prove
that the Springfield hat was in-
deed worn by Lincoln. The DNA
test was never completed.
There is another “Lincoln
hat” in a museum in Ft. Collins,
Colorado. But its origins are even
more suspect. Apparently there
was a collection of stuff donated
by Mr. and Mrs. Bolivar Tedmon,
and their Lincoln hat might be an
example of “this is a hat just like
the one worn by Abraham Lincoln.” We have a “Lincoln hat” at
LeRoy House. It was never worn
by Lincoln, but it is a stovepipe
hat, which was the style preferred
by the President.
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